1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an alkali niobate-based piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body having a large electric-field-induced strain during application of a high electric field and a method of calculating a diffuse scattering intensity ratio, which method can easily obtain a diffuse scattering intensity ratio that serves as an index for improving a electric-field-induced strain of an alkali niobate-based piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body during application of a high electric field.
2. Description of the Background Art
A piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuator has an advantage in that a displacement can be accurately controlled in the order of submicrons. In addition to the accurate control of a displacement, a piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuator using a piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body as a piezoelectric/electrostrictive body, in particular, has advantages of high electric-mechanical conversion efficiency, high generation power, high response speed, high durability and low power consumption. Accordingly, the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuator using the piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body as the piezoelectric/electrostrictive body is adopted as a head of an inkjet printer, an injector of a diesel engine or the like while making use of these advantages.
Conventionally, a lead titanate zirconate (PZT)-based sintered body is used as the piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body for the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuator. However, since there is growing concern about the influence that the elution of lead from the sintered body may have on the global environment, an alkali niobate-based sintered body has begun to be considered as the piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-78267 is a prior art document describing an invention relating to the present invention. The Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-78267 mentions a domain structure of an alkali niobate-based piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body.
However, a domain structure of the conventional alkali niobate-based piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics sintered body, which can improve a electric-field-induced strain during application of a high electric field, is unknown. As a result, a electric-field-induced strain during application of a high electric field cannot be obtained.